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President Dmitry Medvedev appears to have postponed his first state-of-the-nation address indefinitely.
A Kremlin spokesman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that as far as he understood, an exact date for the address had not yet been set.
This year's annual speech by the president to both houses of parliament had been scheduled for Oct. 23 but was postponed, and senior United Russia member Andrei Vorobyov said Medvedev was to give the speech Thursday.
Citing an unidentified Kremlin official, Vedomosti reported Tuesday that Medvedev would not deliver the speech Thursday as anticipated. Medvedev is continuing to work on the draft, the official said, Vedomosti reported.
On the day he was originally to give the speech, Medvedev posted a six-minute video on the Kremlin web site in which he shared his thoughts on the financial crisis.
National media have speculated that Medvedev may have had to change the content of the original speech because of the crisis.
Medvedev's Speech Up in the Air
29 October 2008
The Moscow Times
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